Monday, November 15, 2004

Why didn't Daley help Kerry?

Great article in the Chicago Reader by Ben Joravsky this week. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it online (do they ever post their articles online???). Anyway, it's about why Daley isn't following that great Chicago tradition of energizing Democratic voters to go to the polls. Joravsky explains:

"[Daley] probably remembers what happened in 1982, when Alderman Edward Vrdolyak, then the Democratic Party chairman, helped engineer a massive registration drive in an effort to increase his clout. A huge turnout that fall nearly toppled Jim Thompson, a popular Republican governor. But Vrdolyak never expected that a few months later, tens of thousands of fired-up new black voters would help Harold Washington unseat Jayne Byrne, Vrdolyak's city Hall ally. For the only time in Chicago's history the black turnout matched the white -- 80 percent.
"The party bosses haven't made the same mistake since."

The article mentions that Sneed reported Patrick Daley, the mayor's son, supposedly voted for Bush. And as for the Mayor, well, he's not saying who he voted for.